Simon Hawke - The Timekeeper Conspiracy

"So why didn't he do it?" Finn said. "Not that I'm complaining."

"Good question. It would seem to suggest that they want Buckingham, D'Artagnan, and even the two of you alive."

"That doesn't make any sense," said Lucas.

"Perhaps it does, if the man who's giving the orders is who I think it is. This game is getting very interesting."

Simon Hawke

The Timekeeper Conspiracy

"Game?" said Finn.

"Oh, it would be a game to him," said Mongoose. "That would be his style."

"Sounds very melodramatic," Lucas said. "Do we get a name? A description, maybe?"

Mongoose smiled. His old woman's disguise was complete right down to the rotting teeth.

"His name is Adrian Taylor. I'm afraid we don't have a description on him. He's a cut above your average terrorist."

"What does that mean?" Finn said.

"It means that he's very good at what he does," the agent said. "Taylor's a mental case, a psychopath, completely unpredictable. But he's also a pro, which makes matters worse because he's capable of a deadly, systematic rationality. He can keep it on a rein and let it all loose when it suits him."

"Sounds like you know the fellow," Lucas said.

Mongoose nodded. "Our paths have crossed before. He's not like the others. I suppose it's possible that he believes all that fanatic bullshit the Timekeepers spout, but I doubt that that's what drives him. This one's in it for the money. And because he likes to hang it right out over the edge."

"Sorta reminds you of someone we know, doesn't he?" said Finn.

"He's worked with Freytag before," the agent continued, ignoring Delaney's jibe. "I tailed Freytag to the Rue Vaugirard and then I lost him. I don't think he knew that he was being followed, he was just being very careful."

"Which raises another question," Lucas said. "If they know we're onto them and they've got a chronoplate, why don't they simply abandon their plan to create a disruption here and clock out to another period? Our chances of latching onto them again would be practically nil."

"You don't know Taylor," Mongoose said. "He's not a quitter and he won't be intimidated. That's what I'm counting on. He knows that as long as we don't know where that plate is, he's got an edge and he'll hold off using it until the last possible moment."

"Then this should interest you," said Lucas. "Finn and I think we know where that chronoplate is. We followed an old man and a young woman from the Luxembourg to a house on the Rue St. Honore. The old man had a laser. He-"

"That would be Jack Bennett," Mongoose said. "Alias Dr. Jacques Benoit. He's the underground link to the terrorists."

"You knew!"

"Of course I knew. What do you think I've been doing all this time, sitting on my hands?"

"But if you knew about Bennett, why didn't you let us in on it?" Lucas said.

Delaney snorted. "Silly question. There was no need for us to know. Right, Mata Hari?"

"For a guy who had a knife at his throat a couple of minutes ago, you're pretty cocky," Mongoose said.

"What's he talking about?" said Lucas.

"His bedside manner," Finn said. "Do you mind if I asked another silly question? If you knew about Bennett, why didn't you move in?"

"Because he doesn't have the chronoplate. The Timekeepers would never sit still for that. He might have given them access to it initially, but he's not part of their inner circle. Taylor will have taken it away from him."

"You had it all figured out, didn't you?" said Delaney. "You found out about Jack Bennett and you've probably had him under observation ever since, only it would seem that the terrorists got what they wanted from him and now he's out of the picture. So why leave him around? Easy, because he would make a perfect decoy. You figured that out, too, because you made sure that he knew he was under observation, hoping to scare him enough to lead you to the terrorists. If he did, you'd move in, and if he didn't, the terrorists would think their decoy plan was working. Meanwhile you anticipated the potential disruption scenarios and you've been Johnny-on-the-spot. You made sure to give us instructions that would involve us with the principals, so that the terrorists would make us, just like Freytag did last night. The idea was to dangle a little bait in front of them, a couple of decoys of your own. Freytag was supposed to spot us, if not last night, then at some other point, whenever we happened to intersect with the key figures in this scenario. You or one of your people would have been right there, because you've had us watched constantly. We were supposed to get killed. With us dead, the terrorists would feel more secure, since they'd seem to have gotten away with it. They'd get careless and you'd trail them to their hideout where they keep the chronoplate. All very neat. Only Freytag didn't kill us. That's why it bothers you. Not because they've passed up an opportunity, but because they're not improvising. They didn't take your bait. They're sticking to their original plan and you don't know what that is. What's more, you had a chance last night, when you made Freytag. You could have followed him to this Taylor character, but you blew it. Freytag didn't know that he was being followed? I don't buy it. He knew and he shook you and it only took him a couple of blocks to do it. He and Taylor probably had a good laugh about it."

"Are you finished?"

"Not quite. How many people have you got on this mission? A dozen? Two dozen? More? You never even considered the possibility of an adjustment going down, did you? You brought enough people back here to spread a net, to cover all the possibilities. Only you needed someone the Timekeepers could spot, a target they could shoot at. As you said, someone to make them nervous. Agency personnel are too valuable to waste on something like that, right? A couple of soldiers would be just the thing. What did you do, go to the Referee Corps and requisition a couple of expendables? Sure, you can have Delaney. He's made a pain in the ass of himself before and he's up on charges now. He'll be just perfect. And Priest just happened to be there with me at the wrong time, so he got thrown into the deal. Is that how it went down?"

Mongoose regarded him with a steady gaze. "More or less," he said.

"Damn," said Lucas. "I can't believe that Forrester would go along with that."

"He had no choice," said Finn, "assuming that he even knew about it."

"If it's worth anything," said Mongoose, "I don't think Major Forrester was fully briefed. There was no need for him to know."

"Well, that pretty much fits in with standard operating procedure, doesn't it?" said Finn. "The pawns are the least significant pieces in a game. There's no need for them to know the reasons for the moves they are required to make. That's all this mission is for you, isn't it? A game. It's a game for Taylor and it's a game for you. Except Taylor controls the board.

He's got a gameplan and you don't. He's castled and he's got all his most important pieces functioning freely. You've got your pieces spread out all over the board. Every agent you've got back here represents one more chance for something to go wrong. You're out of control, Mongoose. The only way you're going to win is if you get damn lucky."

"You still only have part of the total picture, Delaney," said the agent. "To switch your chess metaphor to one of cards, I still have a few aces up my sleeve. Nor do I play a defensive game, as you imply. But that need not concern you. Granted, you've been used. But you can still be useful. Your survival depends upon the degree of your usefulness."

"Suppose we don't choose to play?" said Lucas.

"In that case, your usefulness will have ended," Mongoose said. "Freytag let you live, this one time. He obviously had a reason for doing so, although I confess that I'm at a loss to guess what that reason is. He could have killed you easily; Freytag is an accomplished assassin. He can and will do so whenever it suits Taylor's purpose. You're out in the open and extremely vulnerable."